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Sam remained slumped by her uncle’s side, having not moved from that position since the previous night. Neither Barry nor Archie could persuade her to move since Boxing Day, when she was told the news that her uncle was put in a deep healing trance. Like Maximus, he had suffered serious wounds at the hands of powerful dark magic and needed to be put under intense healing treatments before he could be woken up again. Barry had tried to consul her but Sam refused to talk to anybody. Barry had called in favours with some of the Seekers to cover for her with her job and with Robin but they were running out of excuses for her. To make matters worse, Drake hadn’t woken up either and his entire body seemed to have been covered in a stone-like substance. Archie had come over to look and said that he was in a healing trance of his own.

“Is that even possible?” Barry had asked.

“Considering rumours around the type of abilities the gargoyles had, most definitely,” his brother had replied, “he just used up a large amount of magical energy fighting that shadowmancer and Tezcatlipoca, so it’s safe to assume that he will awaken when he’s recovered.”

That had been nearly five days ago, and Barry was getting worried. He and Sam had watched footage of the battle from the memories of the few Guardians and nurses that were there. They were quick to remember Alexander’s warning on the first day they’d met, “our reptilian friend’s power may be stronger than we’d care to believe so it’s best if he stays this way”

If that’s his power now, thought Barry, then what truly lies beneath those chains?

Barry had remained at home to look after Drake, keeping his draconic friend company while he slept. It was early Friday morning when Drake stirred, nearly causing the sleeping cat to nearly jump out of his fur in fright when the dragon asked, “Where is Samantha?” loudly cross the room.

“Bloody hell mate,” said a disgruntled Barry, “What the hell happened to you? We thought you had died or something.”

“Gargoyles can use their magic to turn to stone when we are recuperating,” stated Drake matter-of-factly, “Our physical wounds heal while our minds and mana are restored. Now I must ask again, where is Samantha?”

“She’s in the hospital, looking after Alexander. Something happened to him and the nurses can’t cure him until they figure out what it is.”

“Hmm,” said Drake, claw on his chin, “how long was I gone for?”

“Five days.”

“Five days?” he repeated incredulously, “I didn’t realise that fight was so draining. I’m sorry if this caused you two to worry.”

“It wasn’t just your condition that caused worry mate,” said Barry, stretching out his paws, “Alexander’s been in a coma for the past few days, Sam’s with him now.”

“Why hasn’t his aura restored him by now?”

“Something’s interfering with it. The Healers couldn’t tell what but if he doesn’t get better soon, they’re not sure if he’ll even wake up.”

Drake seemed to muse on this for a while, and Barry noticed something in the reflection of the balcony doors. A feline face stared back at him, looking almost like it was made out of…vines?

Ah yes, spoke an unfamiliar voice, you will do nicely

“Bartholomew. Bartholomew!” Drake’s voice came through to Barry as if he were speaking underwater.

“What, sorry. Zoned out for a minute. What’s going on?”

“I said, I think I might know someone who can help but I’ll need to ask Samantha’s permission before I leave this place or use my powers.”

“That never stopped you before. You took down Archie remember? And at Christmas we weren’t anywhere near you and you still accessed your powers.”

“I initially presumed your brother to be a threat and went to neutralised him, under the rules that Samantha and the Zodiac, Alexander. What happened at Christmas was because Samantha reached out to me through our magical link. Unless you are willing to donate a large portion of your own magic for a similar affect then we are going to need her help.”

“Actually,” said Barry cautiously, “She and I had been talking since your fight at Christmas and she agreed that you should be allowed out of the house as long as one of us knows where you are. Figured it was the least we could do after you saved our lives and all.”

Drake stared at Barry, his expression was hard to read but Barry thought that he looked almost grateful, not unlike when they got Gerald’s book, which immediately made the feline feel bad for lying. That particular decision was made because neither he nor Sam thought they were in any condition at the moment to even attempt to limit Drake’s abilities anymore.

His power is unknown best to keep him in dark

While trying to shake the voice in his head, Barry watched Drake looked down for a moment then turn towards the balcony window.

“We need to head in that direction,” he said.

Barry transformed, picked up the lizard then shot into the air off the balcony. They flew for about an hour, until they were over a few fields then Barry set them down next to a large forest and transformed back into a cat.

“That was tiring,” he gasped, “where are we?”

“We called it the Lost Forest,” said Drake as he started walking forwards, “you can only find it if you’ve been here before or if the forest pulls you in. In my case, it is the former.”

“And why are we here?” asked Barry walking at the dragon’s heels.

“Because we need to find Titania.”

Barry stopped in his tracks. Noticing this, Drake turned to face him.

“Why did you stop?”

“Titania, as in the Queen of the Fae? A Mother of Magic and Protector of the Earth. That Titania?”

“Yes,” said Drake, with a hint of annoyance in his tone, “Now would you come on?”

“How the hell do you know her?” asked the black feline as they trekked through the forest, “She your ex or something?”

“By the Ancients, are you completely insane? The Gargoyles would consult the Fae on magical issues we couldn’t understand ourselves. We were primarily warriors, not scholars, so we had a mutual relationship with the Fae.”

Lies

“How do you know she still lives here?”

“I don’t,” said Drake as they stopped outside of a curtain of willow tree leaves, “But I know where her spring is. At the very least, it’s healing properties might be able to-oh no.”

He moved back some of the leaves to reveal what once must have been a beautiful grove. Dead grass covered the dry soil and there was a small grey basin laying in the centre of it all, small markings engraved around the sides.

“This shouldn’t have been possible,” said Drake, his tone now very serious, “The Fae’s magic would’ve kept this grove alive for centuries, even after they left.”

“Are you sure that-Argh!” the moment Bar stepped into the grove, a sharp pain struck his mind and an image of a demonic looking jaguar moving towards him in his mind’s eye. Its teeth bared, the jungle leapt towards Barry, claws ready to tear him apart.

“Get away from me!” He yelled, instinctively releasing a large blast of electricity that barely missed Drake and struck one of the dead trees on the other end of the grove.

“Bartholomew!” called out Drake rushing up to his friend, “What’s wrong? Are you-”

“I’m fine just thought I saw something,” muttered Barry as he shook his head, “Must have been some of the magic left around here. Let’s-”

Barry felt a very cold chill pass down his spine and his fur stood on end.

“Shadow magic,” said Barry in a hushed voice.

Too late

They were suddenly surrounded by skeleton creatures that had shadows in place of flesh and had glowing red eyes. Drake and Barry transformed quickly, the latter now wearing leather armour, metal bands on his wrists and silver greaves on his legs. In his hand, he held a black tonfa with his white crystal talisman embedded into part of the handle. Drake was back in is old body but instead of his full armour he was bare chested and wore black leather trousers with a long white cloth around his waist as a belt.

Barry could feel his magic was weaker than normal, most likely due to the flight from earlier, so opted to use his magic sparingly, one glance at Drake and he could tell the reptile was in a similar situation. The two focused their powers and were soon wreathed in their respective red and silver auras.

Barry moved so quickly that he became a blur and four of the creatures fell to his weapon within moments. He hit them hard, moving at high speeds thanks to his aura while Drake used his own aura to augment his strength and peculiar fighting style to defeat the shadow creatures whenever they tried to get close. The hordes kept on coming and soon the two of them were surrounded by at least a hundred of the things.

“Buy me some time,” instructed Barry and Drake nodded.

“King of the winds,” chanted Drake quickly, “hear my calling and answer my prayer. Lay your hand upon my back and grant me your power.”

Two long sky blue blades formed in his hands, each as long as Drake’s arm and razor sharp. He sprinted forwards and spun his swords in twin silver arcs, cutting through each creature with the first strike. Barry’s eyes went white as he summoned mana through his talisman and sent a large pulse of light magic around them, dispelling the creatures into dust. The panther’s eyes returned to normal and Drake caught him before he could fall.

“That took more than I bargained for,” muttered the exhausted feline.

“Well we cannot return to our beast forms just yet,” said Drake, “Those things must have a master somewhere and I, for one, don’t want to be caught unprepared.”

Barry nodded and placed his weapon on his belt while Drake’s swords faded into the wind. They walked on, the natural magic of the forest helping them maintain their current forms. With each step the task became more of a chore until the magic around them seemed to dry up, as if someone had robbed this part of the forest of all its life force.

The pair found themselves in front of an archway with all six of the symbols of each element engraved on top of it. Water, wind and light were on one side while fire, earth and shadow were on the other.

“What is this place?” asked Barry for the second time.

“I told you, it’s the Lost Forest,” said Drake, “It’s one of the few magically powered foci in the world and used to be home to the Fae. If the shadowmancers drained this place of its magic, then it can’t be for anything good.”

“So, you think that the shadowmancers escaped through there?” asked Barry, examining the archway. When he reached out to touch it, a small spark struck paw and he recoiled on reflex.

“Some kind of portal?”

“It would have to be short range otherwise we would’ve sensed the energy earlier,” concluded Drake, “We’ll have to be cautious and try not to draw to much attention to ourselves.”

“Then let’s go,” said Barry but Drake stopped him.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this? If you release too much light magic we could be swarmed by shadowmancers with no way out.”

“I’ll be fine,” said Barry, tugging his arm away, “But won’t they notice if you ‘flame-on’?”

“I don’t have the strength to muster that kind of transformation a second time,” said Drake, his tone firm, “but I will be using these.”

The blades he had held earlier reappeared in his hands and he hooked them onto his belt. They stepped through the archway and reappeared in an underground cavern that was swelteringly hot. There were lava pools all around them and several groups shadow creatures seemed to be patrolling the opening at the end.

“Where are we?” asked Barry in a hushed whisper.

“Somewhere deep underground,” said Drake, “We’re probably a few hundred metres below the surface.”

“Let’s fly around these guys,” said Barry in a low whisper but after a few moments struggling, he found he was unable to summon his wings, “There’s too much Dark Magic here, I can’t use my wings!”

“Fortunately, mine still work,” whispered Drake.

Drake spread his wings then lifted Barry into the air using the thermals from the lava and they soared over the shadow creatures. They landed in a dimly lit room that had small holes in the walls like something one might see in a crypt. In each hole lay a solid black coffin with the symbol of shadows carved into it. Neither warrior touched the coffins and left the room to enter an amphitheatre lit by several large braziers along the stage.

On the stage sat a young blonde man in a long purple robe with his eyes closed. He was sitting cross-legged, or so they assumed from his posture, and had a large amulet around his neck with a copper coloured gem and a piece of lapis lazuli, both placed perpendicular to each other and each glowing brightly. Hovering in front of the man was a small silver basin, filled with a glowing reflective liquid.

“I remember him,” whispered Barry, “he was at the park where the Fallen One was released. I shot a lightning bolt through his chest.”

“Well, now we’ll have to be more thorough,” muttered Drake, “The amulet is radiating a lot of energy, we can’t let him use it and that basin is practically overflowing with the forest’s magic. Try not to touch it.”

They moved forwards swiftly but before they gone more than a few metres closer, the mage opened his eyes, revealing two pitch black stones pitted into his skull.

“Welcome young Guardians,” said the man and he rose into the air, “I have been expecting you.”

“Too bad,” said Drake and he shot into the air, swords flashing but the man hit him with a blast of wind and the gargoyle crashed to the floor.

“Drake!” called Barry and he snarled at the floating man, activating his aura. The panther leapt into the air and swung his tonfa but the man easily dodged it and punched Barry into the ground with a fist made of earth.

“That felt,” grunted Barry as he stood, “oddly familiar. I think he’s using Maximus’s magic.”

“It must be the amulet,” said Drake, shaking off the rubble as his own aura sprung into being, “Somehow he’s been using it to absorb Maximus and Alexander’s powers. Explains why they’re not healing.”

“So there is something in that peanut sized brain of yours,” taunted the man, “I hear that you fought the Priestess a few days ago? I think you’ll find me to be more than a challenge for you!”

“Unlikely,” said Drake and he twirled his blades in his hands then summoned a blast of wind that knocked the man out of the sky, “That shadow witch at least knew when to shut up.”

Barry followed suit by firing a lightning blast at the man but a stone fist blocked the bolt before it reached its target. The fist then separated into hundreds of small pieces then they shot towards the pair at the speed of bullets. Drake grabbed Barry and they flew upwards to avoid the stones but the earth attack followed them into the air. Barry created a lightning field to defend against the stones but then their adversary raised his hands and made rocks fall from above them. The gargoyle growled as some stones bashed against him but endured the attack to keep him and Barry from falling before throwing his friend at their attacker. Barry collided with the man and sent another blast of electricity through his body but it was a just a stone copy and he soon fell victim to the sorcerer’s next attack, a blast of wind that sent Barry tumbling through the seats of the amphitheatre. Drake took out his swords again and made to dive their opponent but the sorcerer merely sent another barrage of stones at the gargoyle, knocking into the cavern wall.

“This isn’t nearly as fun as I thought it would be,” said the sorcerer as he rose into the air once more, “give me a challenge!”

“You want a challenge!” roared Barry, his magic arcing around him, “then here’s one!”

A bright light started to envelop the cat before Drake cried out, “Don’t you’ll wake up the others!”

“What?”

“If you use that much power, the light magic will alarm the shadowmancers sleeping in that crypt and we’ll be overrun!”

He lies, screeched the strange voice in Barry’s mind, all he wants is amulet. He craves its power for himself!

The sorcerer laughed and created a giant earth fist to attack Barry but Drake intervened, using his blades to slice through the stone but another rock fist rose from the ground and smashed him into the wall again, making him drop his swords. When the gargoyle fell, Barry fired another lightning bolt to destroy the stone construct but was then hit from behind with another wind attack. Drake’s swords clattered to the ground and vanished.

“This isn’t working,” muttered Barry.

“Well, I’m open to any suggestions,” said Drake as they got back to their feet but were quickly hit with another wind blast that knocked them backdown.

“You two really are gluttons for punishment,” said the sorcerer, “it doesn’t matter to me when you die anyway. Your friends’ magic will soon be drained dry and I’ll have all the strength I’ll need to combat the Zodiac and their pathetic Guardian Order! I’ll-oof!”

A blast of blue light had come from nowhere and had taken the sorcerer out of the air. A grey wolf was standing on top of some of the chairs and had its ears folded back as a loud growl could be heard across the room. Tendrils of shadow seemed to envelop the creature and in its place stood a tall anthropomorphic wolf wearing black armour that covered his torso in a sleeveless chest plate with two wrist bands and long greaves on his digitigrade legs, his head was covered with a helmet that had holes in it for his ears and eyes, which shone with a deep purple light. Around his wrists were long black chains that seemed to be linked with two dagger sheathed on his back.

The lupine spread his four-fingered hands, each of its four sharp claws extending like glistening black blades, and gripped the stone hard enough to crack it. The wolf’s long grey tail curled inwards as it lowered itself to the ground and his growl intensified before quickly leaping into the air and delivering a punch to the sorcerer’s face that sent a small shockwave across the room. Barry felt his aura flicker and he saw the same thing happening to Drake a few metres away. Their powers were failing as their magic dwindled away and neither of them where in any shape to stand.

You wish for power?

Almost surreally, Barry felt himself turn towards the basin, the reflective liquid seeming barely disturbed by the battle, and he felt a powerful unnatural pull towards it.

Come young cub, take what is yours. You want to protect your ally, do you not?

“Bartholomew,” came Drake’s voice, “what are you doing?”

Ignore the reptile, he seeks power only for himself. You’ll use it to protect everyone. You can save them.

“Bartholomew don’t touch that elixir!” called out Drake, trying to fly towards him but one of his wings were pinned beneath a stone.

Come to us Guardian, called the basin, use our power to end this fight.

Before he could stop himself, Barry found his paw reaching out and touching the basin. An intense, painful shock shot through Barry’s body as it was flooded with the ancient magic of the forest, then everything in Barry’s vision went white.

***

Both the wolf and the sorcerer were blasted back as Barry’s power illuminated the amphitheatre with a bright silver light. When it faded, Barry stood in the centre of a giant warrior avatar, his body bursting with pure magic power. The silver avatar looked a lot like Barry except it wore Aztec armour with a crown of long silver feathers around its head, several decorative bands on his tail and its lower left leg was merely a skeleton of the limb. The entire avatar was transparent and sparks of electricity pulsed between Barry and the avatar, the former was floating in middle of the glowing warrior, his eyes glowing brightly with several white streaks running across his fur.

“Bartholomew!” called Drake but his friend couldn’t hear him and let out another feral roar in response.

The Sorcerer rose into the air and threw several boulders at the Guardian but Barry smashed through them easily. Barry grabbed the sorcerer and they shot into the ceiling, causing the room to cave in on itself. Having been freed by the explosion, Drake spread his wings wide and then shot for the hole Barry had made with the wolf in tow, leaping from ledge to ledge. As they climbed Drake noticed their new ally slip and caught him before the wolf could fall.

“I guess this make us even then,” said the wolf, his words revealing an American accent.

“I guess so,” replied Drake and they soared into the open air where they were enveloped in a bright light from the noon sun. When it faded, they were back in the forest, having emerged from a large hole next to the archway from before.

The forest looked like it was turning green once more then a bright light above them showed the two warriors where Barry was. The panther was attacking the sorcerer with weapons made of pure silver light. He used four arrows of pure light that flew around them, striking where they perceived an opening, while his foe used combinations of earth and wind to defend against the panther’s onslaught.

“We need to end this before your friend kills himself with his power,” said the wolf.

“Agreed,” said Drake, beginning to draw in power from the forest to try heal his wing, “we need to disrupt his magic somehow. If we could also interfere with the amulet’s power, then we could defeat our main target.”

“Would an EMP work?”

“What is an EMP?”

“Never mind, just try to keep those two from killing each other for a couple seconds, then let me handle the rest.”

Drake nodded and crouched down. He readied his power until his entire body was once more surrounded in his crimson aura then shot into the sky and knocked Barry backwards into the air.

“Come on cat get a hold of yourself!” called out Drake, “Wake up!”

The panther roared and swatted his friend away before conjuring a sphere bigger than Sam’s car above his head. Drake took the opportunity fly into the sorcerer and smack him into Barry’s path with his tail. Just as Barry was about to throw his sphere, the wolf stepped in below his target.

“Queen of the night, hear my song,” he chanted quickly, long tendrils of shadow being drawn towards him, “as I call for the moon. Lend me your will to command the shadows!”

A beam of pure shadow energy, as black as night, came from the wolf as he opened his mouth and howled towards the sorcerer. The beam met Barry’s attack head on, with the sorcerer caught in the middle and a mystical pulse washed over the forest, causing the archway to crack in half and dispelling Barry’s avatar, the Guardian transforming back into his beast form immediately after. Drake caught his friend before the cat hit the ground while the wolf leapt forward and grabbed the amulet from the stunned sorcerer’s neck. The man fell onto the earth with a thud, his aura soon failing and barely cushioning the force from the ground. Drake and the wolf walked over to him and watched as a dark fog seemed to rise from his unmoving form and faded into the air.

“Well that was fun,” said the wolf, “I’ll be seeing ya.”

“Wait,” said Drake, his hand outstretched, “the amulet is needed to revive our friends.”

“You mean you need it to try and undo the seal placed on your soul?”

Drake said nothing and the wolf gave a whole-hearted laugh.

“It’s okay dude,” said the wolf, tossing the amulet into the air and catching it, “The magic energy siphoned has returned to Alexander and the others, but I’m happy to fight you for it.”

Neither of them moved for a full ten seconds then a groan from Barry broke the silence and the two warriors relaxed a little. The wolf bounced two fingers off the top of his head in a mock salute then disappeared into the shadows.

***

I felt humiliated and drained. That lupine had really gotten under my scales during our latest encounter and it was infuriating that he was so strong. During those tense moments where he issued that challenge I realised that neither of us were in any shape to do so. The resulting battle would have ended in a draw at best and I’d rather not think about the alternative. The amulet was a Phylactery, an item with unique mystic powers, it was probably the only thing I would find capable of dispersing the seal around my spirit, but how had he known that?

What also continued to plague my mind was the notion that such an unexperienced sorcerer could even understand the complexities of a phylactery. Such an item required immense magical strength and power to operate over vast distances, the concentration needed was unfathomable and I found myself wondering how this measly human had accomplished such a feat.

Further groans from Bartholomew from his position on my back snapped me back to reality and I manoeuvred my wings again to keep him from falling off. After the fight, I had unwillingly returned to my beast form and was stuck in the middle of the forest with a semi-conscious housecat. I opted to carry him on foot rather than test my injured wing, the rock having left a small tear in the membrane. After several attempts, I managed to get him onto my back with his front legs practically hooked over my wings to keep him in place. We travelled this way for several hours, eventually leaving the forest and making our way across the landscape for a while before I managed to get us into the city limits. It was getting past sunset before Bartholomew began to stir.

“Ugh,” said Bartholomew, “why do I feel like I have a hangover.”

“Probably because you did precisely what I told you not to and accidently absorbed the entire magical power of the Fae’s grove,” I said, rather angrily, rounding a corner into an alleyway, “You could have been killed, or worse!”

“Didn’t know you cared,” muttered Bartholomew, in a tone so harsh it prompted me to stop in my tracks before shaking him off my back and onto the ground.

“Ow! What that for?”

I turned around and stared the cat right in the eye as I said, “Let me make one thing very clear to you, because apparently, it hasn’t yet sunk into your thick skull. I care about what happens to you! You think I would have bothered to carry you several kilometres on foot if I didn’t care? Do you think my actions at Christmas were only to serve me? I’ve been training with you for months Bartholomew, I know you better than I did members of my own clan! I do care about you, because right now, you’re the closest thing to family that I’ve got.”

Bartholomew looked at me for a moment then just turned away and stared at the wall.

“Aww, isn’t that precious?”

I whirled round to see a grey wolf standing on top of one of the nearby trash bins. Even without looking at his aura I recognised the creature’s emerald green eyes, enhanced by the light from the living room.

“What do you want?” I snarled.

“Drake, who is this?” asked Bartholomew, quickly getting to his feet.

“What? Don’t recognise me?” asked the wolf mockingly, “I guess I do look different from earlier. I brushed my fur a little, gave myself a good roll in the-”

“He won’t remember you,” I cut in, the menace in my tone growing, “Now what do you want?”

“Only to enlist your help,” said the lupine cheerily, laying down across the large bin, “Need a bit of muscle to deal some trouble on my end. Interested?”

“No,” we both said and the wolf’s eyes widened a bit before he quickly regained his composure.

“Why not?” he whined, his eyes seemingly growing large and giving him an expression that almost made me feel sympathetic towards him, “It’s only a small favour, surely you two won’t mind.”

“Then go find a dog catcher,” said Bartholomew sternly, “I’m sure they’ll love adding a freshly caught mutt to their Christmas bonus.”

The wolf dropped the eye trick and scratched behind his ear as he said, “Whatever cat. Look, I really do need your help with something. You know that guy we just fought? Well it turns out that he was a reanimated corpse, that’s why his body could hold all that magic. I was trying to track down the necromancer who summoned him but he’s got a lot of friends. Like the kind who summon beings made of shadows and are annoyingly resistant to my kind of magic.”

“Shadow Fiends,” I muttered.

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

“You’re a Shadow Hound,” I said, “When I saw your aura earlier, it looked as if it was made of living darkness.”

“Rude,” said the wolf, acting as if he was indecent, “You don’t go looking at people’s auras dude!”

“Dude?” repeated a bemused Bartholomew, “Where in America are you from?”

“Depends which America ya thinking of. There are two of them.”

I sensed we were digressing from the main issue so I stepped in to keep us on track. “Where are the Shadow Fiends?”

“Oh right, they’re about a few feet behind me. So, can I get that help, like, right now?”

Bartholomew and I turned to as we heard loud crashing sounds coming from the street behind us and we saw several skeleton hounds sniffing around.

“Those things were the things chasing you?” hissed Bartholomew, “How many exactly?”

“A lot, probably more than what were down in that cavern.”

“We can’t fight them here,” I said, slowly edging backwards down the alley, “There could be casualties.”

Bartholomew looked around and noticed the name of the road, “We won’t have to. Just head south and follow my lead. The flat’s not far from here, if we make it past the park we should be in the clear.”

We nodded and started running the moment those skeletal hounds reared their heads to face our direction. I tried flying but one of my wings was still sore from being pinned from that rock and I doubted Bartholomew could fly in his current form.

We ran through the streets, finding several other patrols along our path, each one possessing at least one canine looking skeleton whilst hosting a myriad of other grim creatures.

“How are none of your allies noticing this?” I demanded, after counting at least forty of the things following us now.

“Who says they haven’t?” countered Bartholomew as, off in the distance, I noticed a sleet of sharp hail begin to fall and pierce some of the other creatures, “but they’ve probably got their hands full, we’re still really short staffed since the attack at Christmas. I’d be surprised if there was more than one team out this far.”

“This all sound very interesting,” snapped the wolf, blasting back some of the faster beasts, “but can we focus on running, please?”

We made it to a train yard and began to sprint across it, several skeleton fiends chasing us with a few crawling around some of the stationary carts trying to reach us.

“Drake look out!”

One of the beasts smacked into me from behind and we rolled across the gravel. Its bloodshot eye glared in anger at me as it tried making several attempts to bite my head off. Within seconds I found myself pinned to the ground, the creature’s jaws slowly making their way closer to me. I spied the beat’s allies making their way closer.

“Get…off…me,” I managed, but then felt a large lump form in my throat, as if I was about to vomit. Instead, when I opened my mouth a blast of fire burst forth and blasted the beast off of me. I was so stunned by this, I could only stare, mouth still agape, as I watch the beast burn.

“Drake!” called out Bartholomew, snapping me out of daze, “Move it.”

I complied, rushing back to my feet and sprinting back to the others. As we ran, the wolf continued to blast back some of the creatures that got in too close, whilst Bartholomew and I rarely contributed to his efforts, mainly due to the former not being fully recovered and my lack of control of when I could spout out flames.

Within minutes we arrived at the park, with only a few street lamps to light it up and a few human bystanders nearby.

“I got this,” muttered the wolf and barked loudly at the humans, growls and acting threatening whilst Bartholomew and I watched out for our attackers, who had gone silent.

“Can you reach anyone?” I asked.

“No, someone is blocking me,” he replied.

“Are you ready for this? You don’t look fully recovered yet.”

“Neither do you yet you’re still going to fight.”

I shrugged at that in response, then he said, “So, fire breath huh? Sure you’re not a dragon?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I don’t know why I can do it, nor how exactly but I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.”

The black cat gave a half-hearted chuckle at that for some reason then said, in a more serious tone, “They’re surrounding us, cutting us off from any reinforcements. You know what that means, right?”

“That there’s someone smart in control of these things,” answered the wolf, trotting back to us, “So we’re probably in for a rough fight.”

“Well then, let’s not keep them waiting,” said Bartholomew and he took a few steps forwards. A bright silver light enveloped him and he transformed into his bipedal form, with his full silver armour and carrying two bladed tonfa.

The wolf grinned and did the same, his body once more being covered in shadows before he returned to the armoured form he took on earlier, twin sai in each paw.

As I transformed I noticed something different. Flames now wreathed my body, much like what happened during Christmas, as my armour formed around my body. I had no weapon to wield so I also took the precaution to turn on my aura, noticing Bartholomew had also done the same.

We stood back to back as multiple red eyes started appearing in the shadows around us.

“Name’s Arthur by the way,” said the wolf, “Thanks again for the help, if we get out of this alive, I owe you two.”

“I’m Barry and this,” the cat motioned to me, “is Drake. And don’t worry, I intend to collect.”

As the swarm grew more intense, we found ourselves shifting closer to the centre of the park but, as we were standing back-to-back, the creatures halted their attack and stood glaring at us.

“What are they waiting for?” asked Bartholomew.

“Orders,” came a smooth voice from the shadows and a cloaked man appeared, his hand clasped in front of him like a priest in a church, “I wanted to see the culprits of today’s vandalism before they were ripped apart.”

“I’m guessing you’re responsible for the zombie we found back there,” said Arthur.

“Raising the dead is not my forte, thus holds no interest for me. However, you two do intrigue me,” the mage focused his gaze on Bartholomew and myself, “How did two mere Guardians manage to destroy our sacred chambers? And with such destructive power.”

“If you want to kill us,” I said, stepping forwards, “Then hurry up and do so.”

A brief flash of annoyance cross the mage’s face before it returned to his neutral expression, “As you wish.”

The creatures surged forwards but just before they could get closer Bartholomew roared and a surge of magical energy illuminated our position. For a few moments, his silver aura flowed around him like fire and two thin rings of white floating runes had appeared around his wrist. Bartholomew’s eyes glowed with magic and lighting arced across his fur.

“Ascension? Smart plan,” muttered Arthur before closing his eyes in concentration. Seconds later his aura had changed similarly to Bartholomew’s, shadowy tendrils swarmed around him for a moment before two similar rings rotated around the lupine’s arm.

The mage’s face contorted into a snarl and with a snap of his fingers, the swarm of beast advanced once more.

Bartholomew’s tonfas grew glowing blades and he began hacking and slashing the bone creatures that came near him. Once or twice, I saw him fired a beam of light from his mouth, annihilating several of them at once.

Arthur threw his blades into the swarm, impaling two of the largest creatures, then lifted them into the air. He then slammed them into the ground before twirling them around on his chains above his head, using his captives to beat back the swarm, all while using shadow magic to enhance his weapons.

Lacking a weapon, I had a simpler objective. I used my Sight to locate the mage and made a beeline towards him, my aura allowing me to crash past his summoned creatures like a rhino. He noticed me charging towards and starting throwing energy blasts at me. I dodged one beam and met another with my fire breath, which made a small explosion in air as our magic collided.

I charged through the flames, mere metres from my target, and leapt forwards, hand outstretched.

Then a large skeletal hand reached out and grabbed me, tossing me into a large tree so hard I could hear it nearly break.

A giant skeletal beast had arrived from the sky, its bat-like wings spreading as it bared sharp fangs in my direction.

“Nice try salamander,” mocked the mage, “but I’m out of your league.”

He clicked his fingers and the giant monstrosity opens its maw, dark energies swirling within as it charged its attack. Before I could react a massive energy blast hurtled towards me but, moments before impact, a bright light blocked my vision.

As I blinked away the spots in my eyes, I saw Bartholomew laying on the ground nearby, his floating runes slowly fading and his breathing was shallow. His weapons were sprawled on the earth in front of me, and were giving off silver smoke.

He must have used his magic to try protect me, I realised, before noticing the giant beast was setting up another charge.

I grabbed one of Bartholomew’s tonfa and tried reinforcing it with my magic but the weapon merely sparked and sent out a weak trail of smoke.

“Before you try using Barry’s weapon,” said a gruff voice from behind me, “you may want to know that Guardian weapons can only be handled by Guardians.”

I turned to see a large minotaur standing at the entrance to the park with his arms crossed. He wore a sleeveless leather shirt with black trousers that met with long steel greaves over the bovine’s lower legs. Bound around his midriff was a white cloth that had two long trails on the belt hanging from one side, and a small bronze stone, baring the symbol of a circle with two curved horns, was on top of the knot. On the minotaur’s wrists were two steel bands with transparent amber stones and the bovine had two massive horns curling inwards above his head.

“Who are you supposed to be?” sneered the necromancer, “an after-dinner snack for my monster?”

“I’m Maximus,” said the minotaur, a copper coloured light spreading across his body.

The necromancer actually looked worried as he whispered, “You mean you’re-”

“Yep,” said the bovine as he looked up at the man, eyes glowing with magical power, “I’m Taurus, the sixth Zodiac.”